While increased AI implementation across the financial services industry has led to a reduction in customer support employees, the roles for human fraud analysts and investigators are not disappearing any time soon.

“AI can process volume and surface patterns faster than any [human] team, but the judgment and the escalation decisions and regulatory accountability still sit with the trained anti-money laundering investigators and analysts,” Jon Glass, a partner in the financial crimes advisory practice at consultancy SolomonEdwards, told FinAi News.

AI is not advanced enough for people to be eliminated from AML and anti-fraud processes, though it might be someday, Bijan Sanii, co-founder and executive director of fintech Inetco, told FinAi News.

“The efficiency from AI is huge, but it doesn’t mean that analysts should get replaced and I don’t think they will be [replaced] in many of these institutions for a while,” Sanii said. “I think they will eventually, when there’s a certain level of maturity, but I think we’re years away from that.”

The AI used for anti-fraud and AML processes still needs humans for monitoring, investigation and oversight, Tracy Moore, director of thought leadership and regulatory affairs at fintech Fenergo, told FinAi News.

“You’ll see AI and technology as an assistant in investigation — it won’t replace the investigator,” Moore said.

Reduced headcount in customer support

While many FIs and other enterprises are attributing reduced headcount to AI implementation, those lost roles are mainly customer-facing.

For example, Wells Fargo’s headcount was down 7.2% year over year as of June 30, the company announced July 14 in its second-quarter earnings report.

That’s because the bank is looking to AI to “make things more automated to improve the client experience,” Chief Financial Officer Michael Santomassimo said on the earnings call.

Market research firm Forrester predicts AI will slash about 50% of customer service jobs by 2030, according to a May 7 report. Though many banks are implementing AI tools for AML and anti-fraud, these tools are being controlled by people who remain essential to the process, Glass said.

Creating new jobs, opportunities

FIs looking to expand their AI usage in AML and anti-fraud likely will need to hire more employees, Anton Dahbura, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Assured Autonomy and executive director of the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute, told FinAi News.

“The first thing they need to do is invest in cybersecurity specialists and simultaneously commit to a culture of security,” he said. “Developing a culture of security is not something that you can do with technology alone.

“As long as we have organizations with people, there has to be at least one person in the room raising their hand, saying, ‘What about cybersecurity?’

“AI gives [human employees] the ability to oversee things, to look at the big picture, as opposed to constantly being down in the weeds,” he said. “They will have better tools, which is great, but you still need the humans.”

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